New Bill Allows `Actual` Travel Costs

June 16, 1987

Recent investigations into the travel spending of suburban Chicago school districts has prompted a Downstate legislator to sponsor a bill that he thinks will end the apparent confusion over what travel expenses should be paid with public funds.

Illinois law now permits school board members and other school officials to receive cash advances and be reimbursed for all ``reasonable`` expenses of traveling to conventions and workshops, many of which are held out of state and require air travel.

State Rep. Michael Curran (D., Springfield) would change the law so officials would be reimbursed only for ``actual and necessary`` expenses.

``With this, it would mean that you`d have to show up with the bills and say, `Here is what we actually spent, and it was necessary to do so,` `` said Curran, a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.

``Sometimes, the word `reasonable` in a case like this can lead us astray. The words `actual` and `necessary` leave very little room for doubt.`` Curran`s House colleagues apparently agreed with his reasoning. The bill sailed through the House 116-0 and is awaiting action on the Senate floor.

Curran said his bill was based on the recent spate of investigations into travel spending by school districts in Chicago suburbs.

Problems at Schiller Park Elementary School District 81, whose practices were challenged in an audit Monday, follow those at Central Stickney Elementary School District 110, which was placed on probation for a year by the state board last October. State auditors said District 110 officials misspent more than $24,000 while on trips to conventions between 1982 and 1986.

District 110 has been investigated by the Cook County state`s attorney`s office and the Internal Revenue Service.

The state board and the state`s attorney`s office also have been investigating Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 and one of its feeder schools, Calumet City Elementary School District 155, both in Calumet City.

A District 215 board member whose husband is a District 155 board member has been accused by some District 215 board members of attending out-of-town school conventions with him and sharing expenses, then double-billing their respective districts when they sought reimbursement.